Re:Gender works to end gender inequity by exposing root causes and advancing research-informed action. Working with multiple sectors and disciplines, we are shaping a world that demands fairness across difference.

Communications, Media & Gender

Mainstream media and the communications sector are still largely male-dominated in management, ownership and representation. Women hold only 3 percent of leadership positions in the sector. And despite the parity of female and male graduates from journalism schools in the U.S., women reporters on average make $9,000 less per year than their male cohorts. New media and the internet are offering new opportunities for women’s involvement, with an estimated 7.3 million more women online than men and 23 million women who use blogs, including the emerging “momosphere,” or moms who blog. A vibrant feminist media is building alliances to combat sexism and amplify voices and critical viewpoints. Initiatives from our network, such as SheSource and the Women’s Media Center, are aiming to address the absence of women as experts and opinion leaders in the public sphere.

While most experts agree women are raped far more often than men, 1.4 percent of men in a recent national survey said they had been raped at some point. The study, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that when rape was defined as oral or anal penetration, one in 71 men said they had been raped or had been the target of attempted rape, usually by a man they knew. (The study did not include men in prison.)

While most experts agree women are raped far more often than men, 1.4 percent of men in a recent national survey said they had been raped at some point. The study, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that when rape was defined as oral or anal penetration, one in 71 men said they had been raped or had been the target of attempted rape, usually by a man they knew. (The study did not include men in prison.)

And one in 21 said they had been forced to penetrate an acquaintance or a partner, usually a woman; had been the victim of an attempt to force penetration; or had been made to receive oral sex.

Other estimates have run even higher. A Department of Justice report found that 3 percent of men, or one in 33, had been raped. Some experts believe that one in six men have experienced unwanted sexual contact of some kind as minors.

As black women watch Michelle Obama on the national stage, they search — sometimes nervously — for nuances often lost on the larger culture. How she handles criticism, how she raises her children, even her style of dress, has the potential to counter negative stereotypes.

In a nationwide survey conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, black women described themselves as relating to Michelle Obama and sensing that she understands them. Nearly eight out of 10 black women say they personally identify with the first lady, and when asked to give a one-word description of Obama, among the words most commonly used were “intelligent,” “strong” and “classy.”

In follow-up interviews, black women say the first lady’s racial and gender identity are essential to the deep connection they feel they have to her. They call her a role model, someone familiar to them — like a sister or aunt.

That emotional stake makes watching Obama navigate the world stage both “thrilling and terrifying,” says Melissa Harris-Perry, a professor of political science at Tulane University who has written aboutthe first lady’s impact on black women.

As we look at the prominent and adoring coverage of celebrity moms and babies -- such as the recent media excitement that surrounded the birth of Beyoncé's daughter Blue Ivy -- how can we doubt that motherhood, and the health and welfare of all mothers, is a cornerstone of our culture?

Today the International Museum of Women launches MAMA, a new online exhibition on motherhood that suggests a far more complex and confusing picture.

Both the global statistics and our exhibition tell a story that is very different to the glowing and positive picture that surrounds each new celebrity birth.

Every 90 seconds a woman somewhere in the world dies from a complication of pregnancy or childbirth, and most of these deaths are preventable. And while it is true that the vast majority of these deaths occur in the developing world, the U.S. significantly lags other developed nations: the United States' rate of maternal mortality is the highest of any industrialized country. The United Nations rightly identified reducing the number of global maternal deaths as a key millennium development goal. Yet of all the millennium goals this one has made the least progress.

Marie Wilson, founder of the White House Project, explains that the role of the first lady is problematic because the cultural ideal of women in the United States has not kept pace with the reality of women’s lives; it’s still about being a wife and mother. Cultural ideals die hard, and the role we preserve for first ladies serves as the most powerful and visible enforcer of that ideal.

But as women assume ever more visible and powerful leadership roles as Supreme Court justices and members of the president’s cabinet, as well as CEOs of large U.S. companies, the cultural ideal of wife and mother has been further threatened. Even when first ladies are good wives and mothers, they are still reined in when they try to go beyond.

When we have our first woman president and, thus, our first gentleman (it even sounds bad), believe me, we will figure out how to change this role pronto. Until then, there are other real ways we can get off the dime.

HSN announced the results of a survey by the international research firm Parks Associates that asked 2,000 adults about purchases they wanted to make before 2012. The results showed women outstripped men in their interest in owning electronics, with 18 percent of women planning on buying a tablet before 2012 (compared to 15 percent of men), 20 percent of women wanted a laptop (only 14 percent of men did) and 20 percent of women planning on purchasing smartphones -- compared to 17 percent of men.

The results aren't surprising for several reasons. It's a well-publicized fact that women make 85 percent of purchasing decisions in American households. Women are a force to be reckoned with on a global scale as well: Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre of Boston Consulting Group, writing in The Harvard Business Review in 2009, contended that "women represent a growth market bigger than China and India combined -- more than twice as big, in fact." Silverstein and Sayre also argued that to ignore or misread this demographic is a huge mistake, recalling the failed attempt by the computer manufacturerDell to launch "Della," a website conspicuous for the preponderance of pink tech products it hawked to women.

Parks Associates' findings also makes sense in light of the fact that women are the main users of social media -- meaning we need smart phones, tablets and laptops to access the sites we spend so much time on. A 2011 PEW Report found that 69 percent of women use social media compared to only 60 percent of men, and that almost half of us visit social networking sites daily, (48 percent) compared with just 38 percent of male Internet users.

Researchers find that women bloggers tend to value reciprocity, or mutual exchange, and social ties much more than men, and they were more likely to share knowledge in an environment where those elements were present.

Bloggers and other social network users are more likely to share knowledge online where the qualities of trust, strong social ties and reciprocity are present, according to a study forthcoming in the Journal of Management Information Systems.

But the effect of each factor varies by gender, says Sanjukta Das, assistant professor of management science and systems in the University at Buffalo (UB) School of Management. Das conducted the study with co-authors H.R. Rao, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the UB School of Management, and Sangmi Chai, assistant professor at the College of Business in Sangmyung University in Seoul, Korea.

The Wall Street Journal reported a study done by professors at Columbia University Business School. M.B.A. students were asked to recall math test performance 15 months after a test. The good news is that both men and women performed similarly on the test. The bad news is that there was a big difference in how the scores got reported: Male test-takers mistakenly inflated their scores by an average of 30.5% compared to 14.4% for the women.

The Wall Street Journal reported a study done by professors at Columbia University Business School. M.B.A. students were asked to recall math test performance 15 months after a test. There was no incentive to inflate the test taker’s score since everyone was told they would get $50 if they recalled their performance with a certain degree of accuracy.

The good news is that both men and women performed similarly on the test. The bad news is that there was a big difference in how the scores got reported.

What do you think happened?

Male test-takers mistakenly inflated their scores by an average of 30.5% compared to 14.4% for the women.

The joint OBJECT / Turn Your Back on Page 3 submission provides a snapshot of „A Week In The Life Of' The Sun, The Daily Star and The Sport. It highlights the „Page 3‟ phenomenon, the adverts for the porn and sex industries, and other innumerable ways in which women – and even crimes against women, such as rape and murder – are routinely trivialised and sexualised within the UK press. It calls on the Leveson Inquiry to address this relentless portrayal of women as sex objects as part of its remit to examine the culture and ethics of the press, and it provides recommendations to tackle the hyper-sexualisation and objectification of women in UK tabloids.

The societal and political transformations taking place across the region played an instrumental role in challenging stereotypes about Arab women as oppressed and subservient. In particular, the leading role that women have played in orchestrating and participating in social movements in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen has cemented their position as equal partners to men in transforming the political landscapes in their countries. The most obvious acknowledgement of this leadership role was the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to an Arab woman, Tawakkul Karman, a leading female Yemeni political activist. Whether Arab women’s civic and political engagement will be enhanced in the aftermath of the “Arab Spring” remains to be seen.

Psychologists from Middlesex University and the University of Surrey found that when presented with descriptions of women taken from lads’ mags, and comments about women made by convicted rapists, most people who took part in the study could not distinguish the source of the quotes.

Psychologists from Middlesex University and the University of Surrey found that when presented with descriptions of women taken from lads’ mags, and comments about women made by convicted rapists, most people who took part in the study could not distinguish the source of the quotes.

The research due to be published in the British Journal of Psychology also revealed that most men who took part in the study identified themselves more with the language expressed by the convicted rapists.

Psychologists presented men between the ages of 18 and 46 with a range of statements taken from magazines and from convicted rapists in the study, and gave the men different information about the source of the quotes. Men identified more with the comments made by rapists more than the quotes made in lads’ mags, but men identified more with quotes said to have been drawn from lads’ mags more than those said to have been comments by convicted rapists.

The researchers also asked a separate group of women and men aged between 19 and 30 to rank the quotes on how derogatory they were, and to try to identify the source of the quotes. Men and women rated the quotes from lads’ mags as somewhat more derogatory, and could categorize the quotes by source little better than chance.

Dr Miranda Horvath and Dr Peter Hegarty argue that the findings are consistent with the possibility that lads’ mags normalise hostile sexism, by making it seem more acceptable when its source is a popular magazine.